Redox amplification processes have been described, for example in British Specification Nos. 1,268,126, 1,399,481, 1,403,418, and 1,560,572. In such processes colour materials are developed to produce a silver image (which may contain only small amounts of silver) and then treated with a redox amplifying solution (or a combined developer-amplifier) to form a dye image.
The developer-amplifier solution contains a colour developing agent and an oxidising agent which will oxidise the colour developing agent in the presence of the silver image which acts as a catalyst.
Oxidised colour developer reacts with a colour coupler to form the image dye. The amount of dye formed depends on the time of treatment or the availability of colour coupler and is less dependent on the amount of silver in the image as is the case in conventional colour development processes.
Examples of suitable oxidising agents include peroxy compounds including hydrogen peroxide and compounds which provide hydrogen peroxide, eg addition compounds of hydrogen peroxide.
Any solution containing both a colour developing agent and hydrogen peroxide is inherently unstable as the peroxide tends to react with the colour developing agent and destroy it. Many proposals have been made on how this instability can be overcome but without providing the solution stability of conventional colour processing.
One of such proposals is to add oxidant to a colour developer solution only when it is needed and to remove it after use, recycling the colour developer solution which is left. Such methods need elaborate control mechanisms, especially at start-up, in order to ensure a practical system.
It is well-known to use rotating drums in photographic processing apparatus. Such machines may comprise a rotatable drum having a textured stainless steel surface mounted horizontally whose lower surface dips into processing solution held in a tray-like container. In a hand-operated drum processor each processing solution is poured into the container and then tipped out of it and discarded when the particular processing step has been carried out for the necessary length of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,223 discloses a more mechanised embodiment in which a flexible sheet of photographic material is driven along an endless curved path within a processing tank by passing the sheet through nips formed between at least one pair of driven rollers. At least one of the driven rollers is the drum itself. During processing, the emulsion (sensitive) surface of the sheet is arranged not to come into contact with any stationary part of the processing vessel as it is being processed. This prevents damage to the surface during processing. After driving the sheet around the endless path for a predetermined number of cycles, which defines the processing time, the sheet is then directed out of the processing tank.
PCT published specification WO 92/10790 describes a high speed processor in which an applicator belt disposed in the vertical plane carries out essentially the same function as the drum of a drum processor.